Photos courtesy Double Time Capital

Photos courtesy Double Time Capital

A recent Fortune article profiles Double Time Capital, an investment firm focused on utility-scale solar farms in North Carolina founded by Rye Barcott (MBA 2009) and Dan McCready (MBA 2011). Both Marines who served in the Iraq War, the pair met at HBS and launched Double Time in 2013.

The piece details the firm’s rapid growth:

In just over three years, the firm has raised seven funds, totaling $80 million, from investors including Prudential Financial, Burt’s Bees, former Bank of America chief executive Hugh McColl, Jr., and former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, who now advises the company. Altogether, Double Time has financed 36 solar energy projects, which collectively produce roughly 10% of North Carolina’s solar power and power around 30,000 homes in the state.

Double Time’s approach is to fund projects in their later stages, with a model that rewards in the longer-term. The article also lays out the current challenges for solar, including the falling price of fossil fuels and the potential lack of political appetite for clean energy. But the entrepreneurs have confidence in their unique market:

While SolarCity, Vivint and their ilk install individual solar projects on commercial and residential roofs, Barcott and McCready wanted to address the financing needs of the utility-scale solar developers, which provide power directly to the electrical grid via solar farms. Even a small farm—typically around 40 acres, with more than 80,000 panels—costs upwards of $10 million. And such projects have a huge need for capital. “Solar isn’t just cleaner, smarter energy, or good American infrastructure, it’s also a component of our national security and, ultimately, our energy independence,” McCready says.

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